NOTES ON TWO PERAK MANUSCRIPTS, 



By W, E. Maxwell. 



Malay history is very little more advanced than it was 

 when Crawfnrd remarked on the meagre and unsatisfactory 

 nature of the notices which we possess on "this curious and 

 interesting subject. "( 1 ) The Sijara Malayu, or history of the 

 Malacca kings, is the work of a Mohamedan who grafted 

 events which were recent in his time upon legends whose 

 real place is in Hindoo mythology. It possesses little value 

 as a historical document, except as regards the reigns of the 

 later kings of Malacca. 



The " Marong Mahawangsa" or " Kedah Annals," professes 

 to treat of the early history of the State of Kedah, and though 

 not justifying, as a historical document, the credit attached 

 to it by its translator, Col. Low, it hardly merits, perhaps, the 

 sweeping condemnation of Mr. Crawfnrd, who described it as 

 " a dateless tissue of rank fable from which not a grain of reli- 

 " able knowledge can be gathered." ( 2 ) If, as there seems good 

 reason for believing, the Hindoo legends in these works are 

 traceable to the Brahminical scriptures of India, their value 

 from an ethnological point of view may perhaps some day be 

 better appreciated. The Hikayat Hang Tuah fares no better 

 at Mr. Crawford's hands than the work of the Kedah his- 

 torian. It is described as " a most absurd and puerile produc- 

 tion. It contains no historical fact upon which the slightest 

 Ci reliance can be placed ; no date whatever, and, if we except 

 (i the faithful picture of native mind and manners which it 

 " unconsciously affords, is utterly worthless and contemp- 

 «tible."(3) 



Leyden in his Essay on the Languages and Literature of 

 the Indo-Chinese nations ( 4 ) gives the following account of 

 Malay historical manuscripts : 



1 Descriptive Dictionary, sub voce Qtiecla. 



2 Crawfnrd, Hist, Ind. Arch. Vol. II. p. 371. 



3 Grawfur dHist. Ind. Arch. vol. II. p. 371. 



4 Asiatic Eesearches. Vol. X. p. 180. 



